A service that provides information tailored to fit a customer's needs at a specific location of a wireless device of the customer is referred to as a location based service (LBS). The location of the wireless device can be determined via a positioning system. A wireless device that includes a positioning system is able to determine its position based on reception of signals from satellites and/or wireless stations. For example, a wireless device that includes a global positioning system is able to determine its position based on signals received from satellites. Satellite-based positioning provides high-accuracy position determination, but requires a line-of-sight condition between each of the satellites and the wireless device. Also, processing of the signals received from the satellites requires a substantial amount of energy, which quickly drains a battery of the wireless device. As another example, a wireless device can determine its position using triangulation based on known locations of the wireless stations to which the wireless device can communicate and characteristics (e.g., amplitude, phase, and time) of signals received from the wireless stations.
As a further example, database-based positioning can be used to determine a position of a wireless device by evaluating measurements of radio frequency (RF) signals. A server remotely located from the wireless device requests the fingerprints of the RF signals measured at the wireless device. These measurements are compared to entries in a database to determine a location of the wireless device. An estimate of the location of the wireless device is provided based on a database entry including values that best match the measurements. Database-based positioning provides high-accuracy position determination and does not rely on line-of-sight conditions, but benefits from more distinct radio patterns of multipath environments.